From 2017: McCartney’s manager reaches out to explain Flowers in the Dirt downloads | superdeluxeedition Why not include the ‘download-only’ content on a physical fourth CD in the Flowers in the Dirt box set? The main reason why there is not a fourth physical CD is because Paul didn’t want any more than four discs in the set. What Paul says, ultimately goes. He wants to look to the future and embrace new technology and drive people to streaming. 100m people are signed up to streaming services right now and that is projected to double in the next three to four years. This is seen as the future. Paul’s team want to look to the future and their research shows that more people are excited about the streaming catalogue. If that wasn’t the case then many more box sets would be sold. Surely one extra CD wouldn’t have cost that much? The cost wasn’t the main issue (see above) although Scott was at pains to stress that while Paul’s organisation is not losing money from these reissues, they are not that far from it, so even something like licensing some TV footage for the DVD element could make the difference between profit and loss. Physical music retail is a challenging marketplace with limited options (Amazon, Best Buy, Target. etc.) and Scott also pointed out that despite the costs of these sets, there is a lot of retail mark-up and label margin in the £120 price-tag. Does this mean that Paul doesn’t value his fans? Scott was very keen to underline that Paul values his fans very much but also trusts the team that is in place (headed by Rodger) to put these releases together. The whole Archive Collection series is one big preservation project and Scott is thrilled that they’ve managed to deliver what they have with projects that, in his opinion, go above and beyond. Paul is very involved and checks everything and listens to all the remastered audio. If there isn’t a market for multi-disc sets, how come Sony issued a 60-disc box set for Elvis and a 36-disc set for Bob Dylan? This is a different prospect. Scott agreed that there probably is a market for a 25CD set of Paul McCartney & Wings and MPL could do that. Indeed, they are talking about it. But for one title, one album, it’s different. Why fill the box sets with so much printed material (books etc.) and not focus more on physical music? Scott pointed out that Paul has an archive of over 1.2 million photos – he kept virtually everything. People within MPL are digitising every day. Preserving the world around the key titles in his catalogue via photos, memorabilia, lyric sheets is considered a core part of the process. Doesn’t Paul realise that there’s some great music amongst those B-sides, remixes and cassette demos? The physical discs in the deluxe set (Flowers in the Dirt remastered, Elvis Costello demos and band demos) are considered to be the crème de la crème. The other audio in the opinion of Paul and MPL is of interest, but not considered to be central to the narrative of the making of Flowers in the Dirt. Are all future Paul McCartney Archive Collection deluxe sets going to be like this? The answer to this was that nothing is set in stone. This doesn’t necessarily define what will happen in the future. Will the 16-tracks being supplied as downloads be MP3, CD quality or high-resolution? The additional tracks will be 16-bit standard WAVs since they were sourced from EQ’d CD production master Umatic tapes, which are limited to 16-bit 44.1 kHz. So they aren’t hi-res but neither are they MP3s. What’s does the future hold in terms of the physical deluxe editions of archive collection titles? Paul’s team work on one project at a time because there may come a point where the record label says there is no demand anymore. Despite this, I was assured that loads of potential projects are being discussed such as Wildlife and Red Rose Speedway.
Pure McCartney has an eight-year chronological gap between Flaming Pie and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, so I don't think it tells us much about the potential for remasters of Run Devil Run, Driving Rain, and Back in the U.S./World — especially when you consider that other albums not represented on Pure McCartney have since been remastered (Снова в СССР, Paul Is Live).
As long as it's not veggie pie! Macca slams 'stupid' TV chef Gordon Ramsay for anti-vegetarian rant | Daily Mail Online
Possibly - we're all just guessing - but Chaos has already received a non-remastered CD reissue, which in my opinion is a sign that it's not lined up for the Archive Collection treatment. Run Devil Run, Driving Rain - they were reissued on Hearmusic in 2014 un-remastered, but who knows. I'd love to see everything get the Archive Collection treatment; so I hope I'm wrong. Driving Rain happens to be one of my favourite albums, so I'd love an archive edition of that, in particular.
Thanks! great reading. Things have changed a lot since Flowers Archive set, Paul didn't wanted a fourth disc on that set FULL OF Music but instead he will add a FIFTH audio disk on Flaming Pie that it seems will be a truly waste (and will increase the price of the regular box set)??
CD 1: Flaming Pie (remaster) CD 2: demos CD 3: outtakes CD 4: the 6 CD-singles (except the songs Young Boy, The World Tonight and Beautiful Night) CD 5: ingredients that will leave a bad taste in our ears
MPL did that with a release: Wide Prairie. Remastered LP but no physical CD. And fans asked about a physical CD because they don't want the hassle of digitizing the vinyl and/or know that the digital music services don't keep those versions around forever. In an interview circa 1993, Paul talks about how most Wings material makes him cringe. By the next project, he's noting there's some really good stuff in there. Times change and so do opinions. It can be equally argued that if Paul thought that poorly of Press To Play, it would not be featured on Pure McCartney. The key to that statement is remastering. Honestly, Flowers in the Dirt is not an LP that needed all that much alteration for disc 1, and it's highly unlikely that anything in the previous decade had needed it. That doesn't refer to expansion, which is what the Archives do: they expand the album to demonstrate more about what it was about musically. You're misinterpreting the statement based on the words "not far from it." The key word for that statement is (my stress in bold) "licensing." Unless MPL owns it, it has to pay for the use of that extra material – and the owners are able to charge a large fee knowing that it has something wanted that can make profit. Want proof of the dangers of licensing? The Monkees complete video set. It has to omit 30 seconds from one TV special because Jerry Lee Lewis charged too much for them to include the clip of "Great Balls of Fire" and keep that intended cost. Paul's not unfamiliar with the process: Oobu Joobu cut out pieces by other artists for the Best Buy CD giveaway. Run Devil Run's deluxe editions only include the originals of songs MPL owns for the bonus disc (if that's the version you have). For the Archives, this explains why Pipes Of Peace doesn't have the BBC clip of being visited in the studio as Paul works on it. Paying the BBC, as well as their reporter for appearance rights, may have been too much. Or why other TV/promotional appearances aren't used, audio and/or video. Looking back, it's astonishing that The McCartney Interview was not included in McCartney II despite coming out at the same time — it may be the licence from NME was too much. And thus the point about costs. Once you take away the retailer's profit line (which in most retail situations is 100%) and the label's distribution cut, you're looking at a small difference between what it already costs and what it might cost if there was that extra material thrown in. I looked into costs in the early 2000s when looking at Hollwood accounting for a business class. A DVD costs the studio, on average, $4 to manufacture all costs in. Adding in additional catalogue advertisement and storage costs, it goes to the retailer for $10. The retailer prices the film for $26.99 so that it can "reduce" the costs for sales that still grant it 100% profit or close to it. Then, when the studio decides it is done with the items, it clears them out for $5 each, and the retailer sells them for $10 or less to keep sales going. And Paul owns all of it. Especially the photos. Guess who's photos show up in Abbey Road:50 and likely Let It Be:50 — and who owns them. With those images, Paul gets a little more profit because he can purposely lower the cost. That, and Linda was an incredible photographer when it comes to musicians at work. Could this be Capitol's comprehensive plan that was talked about in the announcement of the switch? And then there's these crucial nuggets you are skipping past: So far, Capitol doesn't seem to be saying no to these sets. In 2018, a year after that interview, you had Wings 1971-1973, the most expensive set yet, as well as Archive editions for Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, plus The Beatles:50. In 2020, if all still goes according to play, you have Flaming Pie (with a deluxe version at higher cost), Plastic Ono Band:50, All Things Must Pass:50 and Let It Be:50 coming. If anything, I'd say that the record label wants more of them — especially since the value of these sets is that they aren't simply replicable digitally or for streaming like standard CDs. And when they come, each will be different. Same with The Beatles' releases. Note that The Beatles:50 didn't bother putting on the "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" single despite its connection to the LP, and moved the mono mixes to the blu-ray. Abbey Road:50 didn't offer video content that would barely fit a disc. Look at what's left and the way the albums so far have trended in the Archives. The last two Wings albums may be the last time we get an 11 disc release at once. There is a lot of material for Press to Play, Off the Ground, Driving Rain, Chaos And Creation and possibly Memory Almost Full. Broad Street, Choba B CCCP and Run Devil Run would need to stretch to get close to that content level. And Electric Arguments onwards has almost been done already through its existing releases (maybe add one more disc of material around the period). Tripping the Live Fantastic and Paul Is Live fit somewhere in the middle of that because of the extra audio material that fits in and the printed material that can fill the sets. As I said, once we get past the mid-80s – or, better yet, Broad Street, Press to Play and Off the Ground – what's left will be something the management will take a look at and assess. It may very well be that the demand for boxed sets from the label is there, and the material can be expanded with a lot less cost because (a) the options are clearer and (b) the design is simpler.
So, I don’t need a remaster and I have the singles and if disc 5 is a disappointment I hope 2 & 3 are worth it.
Already said to be not on the set, I believe. Which is fine with me — it's all one track, and the highlights of it are likely to end up on other sets (like "Cow" ended up on Wide Prairie). The only piece I can think of on there that's so far unique is the demo for "How Many People," which can show up on a demo set later on too.
Don't forget though, that Wide Prairie probably has less commercial appeal than one of Paul's albums; which may have figured in the decision not to reissue it on CD. In contrast, the prospect of having some of McCartney's albums issued as deluxe sets, while others are not issued physically at all would seem to be madness, IMO. Fair point. I'm thinking of an interview Paul did with Q magazine in 2006 where he said "Press to Play got a good kicking when it came out, and rightly so". I don't think, though, that even if he did have negative opinions, it would prohibit a reissue from happening. I haven't misinterpreted anything. I've only re-stated what it says in the article, which is MPL is not far from losing money on the Archive sets. Obviously Capitol still sees there's a demand, hence Wings 1971 - 1973 and the upcoming Flaming Pie. I absolutely want, and hope, they will continue with the sets, and believe they will up to Press To Play, but if you want an archive set for Paul Is Live or Tripping The Live Fantastic, I suspect you'll be waiting a very long time.
1) Wide Prairie was re-released in conjunction with another show of her photos, this time Polaroids, that had some very expensive versions of the accompanying book that sold just as quickly 2) It's likely that the original CDs were still in sufficient quantity as it is the only version of the album that didn't receive a re-release. It's possible that, at some point, the CD reissue might be expanded to include video of her photo tours and/or the MPL documentary about her photography that came out in the 90s… when the company deems the market to be right for it. As I noted in one of these threads, that may be sooner than one might think. Assume 2021 sees the release of London Town and Back to the Egg. That leaves the likely candidates for Archive release to be: Give My Regards to Broad Street Press to Play Off the Ground Driving Rain Chaos And Creation in the Backyard Memory Almost Full New Egypt Station And it's unlikely that each of those eight will reach the size to be released alone, especially given that the last three had double-dip releases that cleaned out most of the bonus tracks as well as separate live event releases. You can augment that list of eight with the covers albums to fill in some of the other halves, but that still barely makes ten releases — at which point you will have to look to the next wave or releases, much as Capitol did when digitizing the albums in 2007. In 2008, there was a smaller wave of the rest of the releases. Personally, I can see Broad Street paired with Choba B CCCP, Driving Rain paired with Memory Almost Full and New paired with Egypt Station. Run Devil Run gets paired with Kisses On The Bottom. And Tripping the Live Fantastic may come in between those releases to fill in the holes for one longer narrative — in much the same way that the push for Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway was done critically acclaimed albums sitting ahead of it.
I wouldn’t put a dime on any of this. Has any theory of yours come to fruition? I don’t mean that with any disrespect. I wish someone with your passion ran things at MPL but it’s never seems realistic at all. And we have to see these theories a lot.
